If there ever was an award for being NASCAR’s most hated driver, Corey LaJoie would probably win it after Pocono. It has been quite some time since LaJoie made the headlines. But this week has been all about Corey, thanks to a controversial maneuver on Kyle Busch that handed the latter his 5th DNF of the 2024 season.

On a relatively positive note, departing Stewart-Haas Racing’s Rodney Childers will be the new crew chief for LaJoie’s #7 team on a multi-year deal from 2025 onwards. With all but 14 finishes outside the top 20 with just 5 races left for the post-season, these developments must feel more than just positive for still-winless-in-NASCAR, Corey LaJoie. And while speaking about the Spire veteran’s potential future on his current race team, fellow Cup driver Denny Hamlin had a concerning picture to paint.

Is the #7 in neutral? Denny Hamlin talks about Corey LaJoie’s struggles

After Spire announced on July 9th that Kevin Harvick’s 2014 championship-winning crew chief, Rodney Childers would take the reigns from Ryan Sparks (also the competition director for the team) as the new pit boss for the #7 crew, one big question was if LaJoie would even be the driver sitting in the car, come next season. NASCAR journalist Kelly Crandall confirmed later in the week that it would indeed be LaJoie who would wheel the #7 Chevy for the 2025 season. 

But one might wonder: why do all these speculations surround LaJoie in the first place? For starters, with over a decade of driving experience in the upper echelons of the top 3 NASCAR National Touring Series, the 32-year-old has failed to manage a single race win across either of the three levels of competition. To put things into a finer context, he has 11 top-10 finishes in over 260 races. But Denny Hamlin said it best on his podcast when his co-host Jared Allen brought up the crew chief swap at Spire Motorsports to dissect things in the current moment.

Denny explained that he doesn’t think it’s “super surprising” to see Childers get assigned to the #7 considering “Spire is trying to get better.” But talking about Corey LaJoie’s 2024 performances amidst all these hopeful developments, Denny said, “I think that the seven car, in general, is stuck in a lull of performance that is not kind of, up to where the #77’s at. The #71 is getting better week in, week out. It seems like they’re starting to, you know, get better than what they were. And the #7’s just been in the same kind of 20th to 25th most weeks.”

Like he said, “And while that would have probably been okay three or four years ago,” considering Spire is a relatively new organization still building with their third full-time car only debuting this year, he outlined the possible split motivations that may divide Corey LaJoie and Spire owners Jeff Dickerson & TJ Puchyr.

He elaborated, “I think that you know, TJ and Dickerson expect a little bit more than that now, especially with the resources that they’re putting in the team. So I think this is a good move by them to say: Alright. Well then, you know this is kind of how it works, right? Is that you get another crew chief, and then you get another crew chief, and then eventually it’s like, ‘Okay we can’t find anything that works with you. So it’s got to be you at some point.’” 

“So, I think they’re putting all their chips on the table and going to give Corey and the seven car, the best crew chief that they could go out and get. And now it’s a situation where Corey has to step up and perform better,“ Denny emphasized. According to him, Corey LaJoie “would tell you that himself.”

He added quite rightfully, that “this will certainly put the pressure on him to go out there and perform. Because we know that Rodney will build him a fast car and they should be at least five-six-seven spots on average better than what they are… now.” Not to be disrespectful to Corey LaJoie, Ryan Sparks, or any member within the #7 crew, but the last time their combined efforts made it inside the top 10 of any race was the season-opening Daytona 500. And with LaJoie seemingly being involved in an incident in every second race this season, the patience of the collective NASCAR community is wearing thin. Hence, Jared Allen observed, “This seems like it’ll be the most high-pressure situation Corey’s had in his career. Certainly, one of the best situations if not…”

To follow through on his co-host’s initial sentiment, Denny Hamlin explained exactly what Allen was talking about.

Time to step up with some Hendrick help

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Spire Motorsports share an alliance with fellow Chevy-backed organization – Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest team in NASCAR. Rajah Caruth’s HendrickCars.com deal with Spire’s #77 Silverado in the Truck Series is a prime example of this partnership.

Aside from that, Denny Hamlin revealed, “Spire has good pit crews. They have Hendrick developmental guys, and you can see the seven or 77 or whatever their pit crews are upfront most weeks. Like, they’re fast, fast guys… They have an alliance with Hendrick Motorsports, and I don’t know what technology they share back and forth, but it seems like Carson (Hocevar’s) at least getting the most out of it. Whatever it is that they’ve got, he’s getting the most out of it week-in, week-out.”

Leaving Pocono, Carson Hocevar’s #77 and Xane Smith’s #71 teams are averaging the 11th & 12th best times during pit stops according to Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. LaJoie’s #7 crew stands 18th on that list.

With Rodney Childers’s acquisition for the #7 team and an already decent pit crew, those numbers will have to improve. Nevertheless, in the context of its driver, he left a note for improvement, “So yeah, eventually you start to cross off all these things that might be variables of why the performance is not where it needs to be. And once you cross all those things off, then you eventually have to look at yourself and say, ‘What do I need to do better?’ because I clearly need to step up… I think he wants to be better. And this next year is going to be a big moment for him.”

But as for now? Corey LaJoie awaits NASCAR’s decisions on his dangerous bump on Kyle Busch at Pocono before he prepares for next week’s Brickyard 400.